Wife has been asking for a Roomba for what seems like forever....I've always been against but finally going to cave.

It seems impossible to pick which is the best robot vac, several different kinds. My first choice was to get the Roomba 805 when Costco had it on sale for $365. However I started researching and realized Roomba might not be the best option.

Our house is all wood and tile with rugs. 2 dogs. Would like to stay under $500

Tell me what I should buy?

I have a roomba 870 and it is great at picking up dog hair and dirt during the night. It isn't a quick fix to never clean again but it'll keep your house looking nice between deep cleans

http://thesweethome.com/reviews/best-robot-vacuum/

https://texags.com/forums/30/topics/2851903

Just picked up a Refurb Neato 80 + a 2 year warranty (Third Party) for under $300. Thing works perfect and is super smart. You have to get into the newest Roomba's (900's) just to have the same type of logic for room mapping. I highly recommend a neato. You get a good deal on the third party warranty since its only a 90 day manufact warranty with the refurb.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MT8B2PF

Check out Neato vs Roomba. The brains in the Neato's are great and at a much much lower cost.

Got the eufy recommended by the sweethome as a wedding present. We have run it a few times and been impressed by how much it picks up. Floors are definitely cleaner on a consistent basis. I haven't noticed a lot about room mapping but honestly it's quiet enough that we just run it a few nights a week while cooking dinner/watching TV and are happy with the results so far. Only time it has gotten stuck was when it went under a couch from the rear and then drove up onto a rug which created too tight of a fit between the floor and "ceiling" (underside of couch). Can hardly fault it for that.

I have the one recommended in that sweethome link and I've been satisfied so far. You can read my thoughts on it in the other thread that is linked above. At $200 it was a great deal.

GarlandAg2012 said:

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Got the eufy recommended by the sweethome as a wedding present. We have run it a few times and been impressed by how much it picks up. Floors are definitely cleaner on a consistent basis. I haven't noticed a lot about room mapping but honestly it's quiet enough that we just run it a few nights a week while cooking dinner/watching TV and are happy with the results so far. Only time it has gotten stuck was when it went under a couch from the rear and then drove up onto a rug which created too tight of a fit between the floor and "ceiling" (underside of couch). Can hardly fault it for that.

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If you have multiple rooms that you want it to clean, you want a room mapping bot. Neato's and the 900's Roomba's will do it. You do not want the random chaos bots like the cheap eufy and most of the other unknown brands in the entry level pricing. If all you have is a single room like a kitchen etc. they will work just fine though.

Maybe eventually that will become apparent to me but for now, it cleans the main level of our home (open concept Kitchen/Dining/Living/Office) well and seems to work its way into each area. I do live in an apartment though so maybe once we get a house we will realize it's outmatched.

GarlandAg2012 said:

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Maybe eventually that will become apparent to me but for now, it cleans the main level of our home (open concept Kitchen/Dining/Living/Office) well and seems to work its way into each area. I do live in an apartment though so maybe once we get a house we will realize it's outmatched.

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Ya mine has 5 rooms it can reach on the same level with tile and rugs/carpet it has to navigate, the chaos ones would never get it done for my floor plan. The neato finished it all in a little over an hour or so. Watched it the first time to make sure it hit everything and it sure did.

Thanks for all the replies.

We have a maid that comes twice a month, but about to have a baby, so that's why the wife wants one, to help in between.

Will look into all that are mentioned above

So it seems the unopened Roomba 805 I just got from Costco $365 should be returned?

1 story 3-2-2 all hard floors, 1600 square feet here

Is the refurbished Neato 80 better than their new wifi D3 or D80? Or is it just such a price difference that you can't beat the refurb?

I've got multiple rooms so I agree I need mapping

MrJonMan said:

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Is the refurbished Neato 80 better than their new wifi D3 or D80? Or is it just such a price difference that you can't beat the refurb?

I've got multiple rooms so I agree I need mapping

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Mapping wise, not much. It does have more features and a different brush that is a little quieter but cleaning power and mapping you do not gain much if any at all. The 2 year 3rd party warranty is only $15 and it kicks in at day 91 so you get a great value for it.

sdc177 said:

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So it seems the unopened Roomba 805 I just got from Costco $365 should be returned?

1 story 3-2-2 all hard floors, 1600 square feet here

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Yes, you will want mapping. Either upgrade to 900 series for 2x the price almost or grab any of the Neato series. Its had mapping from some of its earliest models. The great thing about neato and the new 900's is they will clean till low on power, return for charging and then continue right where they left off. They are smart little bots.

FatZilla said:

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sdc177 said:

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So it seems the unopened Roomba 805 I just got from Costco $365 should be returned?

1 story 3-2-2 all hard floors, 1600 square feet here

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Yes, you will want mapping. Either upgrade to 900 series for 2x the price almost or grab any of the Neato series. Its had mapping from some of its earliest models. The great thing about neato and the new 900's is they will clean till low on power, return for charging and then continue right where they left off. They are smart little bots.

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thanks!

Hmm....time to make a decision on which Neato. Not spending $600 on the 900 model Roomba

Who did you use for the warranty?

FatZilla said:

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GarlandAg2012 said:

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Got the eufy recommended by the sweethome as a wedding present. We have run it a few times and been impressed by how much it picks up. Floors are definitely cleaner on a consistent basis. I haven't noticed a lot about room mapping but honestly it's quiet enough that we just run it a few nights a week while cooking dinner/watching TV and are happy with the results so far. Only time it has gotten stuck was when it went under a couch from the rear and then drove up onto a rug which created too tight of a fit between the floor and "ceiling" (underside of couch). Can hardly fault it for that.

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If you have multiple rooms that you want it to clean, you want a room mapping bot. Neato's and the 900's Roomba's will do it. You do not want the random chaos bots like the cheap eufy and most of the other unknown brands in the entry level pricing. If all you have is a single room like a kitchen etc. they will work just fine though.

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While this is true if you don't mind dropping $600 - $900 on a robo vac, the $200 Eufy does a pretty decent job. I totally agree that the chaos method is pretty damn haphazard and will miss some spots, I'm okay with that since it runs everyday and I have the ability to control it with the remote to touch up any obviously missed spots. Additionally, the combination of the variety of modes can definitely do "good enough" if you're around while it's running.

I've never had a robo vac before, so I wasn't crazy about starting off by dropping the $600 - $900 for something that was just supposed to do "good enough" between manual cleanings.

Do I wish the Eufy was smarter? Of course, but I'd rather spend the extra money on golf or fishing more than I want to upgrade to a 900+ model Roomba. To each his own.

FYI - You can use Bed Bath and Beyond's 20% off coupon on the Roomba. I was able to get my wife the 960 for 519. Still not in your $300 range, but much better than their normal $799. I am sure you can use it on the Neato as well.

I bought the neato connected bot over a month ago. It's freaking kick-ass. Best purchase ever.

Vacuuming our house is a pain in the ass and with a 100 lb shedding dog our floors were always a disaster.

I have mine scheduled to run at 0900 three days a week and it keeps our floors clean. It is shocking though that the entire bin is full with dog hair every other day.

Purchased the Neato D3 connected off Amazon yesterday. $349, but had a $20 instant coupon, so $356 after tax. Won't get it until Friday though

AggieBQ95 said:

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FYI - You can use Bed Bath and Beyond's 20% off coupon on the Roomba. I was able to get my wife the 960 for 519. Still not in your $300 range, but much better than their normal $799. I am sure you can use it on the Neato as well.

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Does the coupon not say Roomba 800 and 900 series are excluded?

ETA: just answered my own question. Bought the 960 at BB&B for $559. It was already discounted to $599 but they took 20% off the original price of $699.

Just got the refurbed neato. The wife is pumped.

This may sound odd but a friend has a device for vacuuming the dog.

So Neato D80?

I've had robot vacs for years. Roomba first then migrated to Neato. I'm on the road now so I don't recall the exact models but I can say without a doubt Neato is superior. Their mapping is stellar. My current D5 will get tired of cleaning, go back to the charger in another room and charge for a few hours, then start cleaning again where it left off. Just awesome.

For some reason Neato actually sent me a d5 for free to review about a year ago. Talk about dumb luck! Now I have the older neato in the master bedroom running daily M-F and the d5 does the rest. Two dogs so the d5 fills up every single day.

KidDoc said:

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I've had robot vacs for years. Roomba first then migrated to Neato. I'm on the road now so I don't recall the exact models but I can say without a doubt Neato is superior. Their mapping is stellar. My current D5 will get tired of cleaning, go back to the charger in another room and charge for a few hours, then start cleaning again where it left off. Just awesome.

For some reason Neato actually sent me a d5 for free to review about a year ago. Talk about dumb luck! Now I have the older neato in the master bedroom running daily M-F and the d5 does the rest. Two dogs so the d5 fills up every single day.

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Have you had trouble with the Neatos breaking down over time? We've got an unfortunate amount of pet hair the vac picks up every day and twice a Neato has bit the dust after about 14-18 months. We've got a Samsung Powerbot now that we really like, but then again we loved the Neatos while they were relatively new as well.

Our Neato Connected is still running strong after ~6 months use, twice a week. I empty the bin after every cleaning otherwise it chirps at me. I'll be curious to see the durability of these botvacs.

My wife walked past a tile scrubbing vac yesterday and wants one of those too now.

benMath08 said:

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KidDoc said:

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I've had robot vacs for years. Roomba first then migrated to Neato. I'm on the road now so I don't recall the exact models but I can say without a doubt Neato is superior. Their mapping is stellar. My current D5 will get tired of cleaning, go back to the charger in another room and charge for a few hours, then start cleaning again where it left off. Just awesome.

For some reason Neato actually sent me a d5 for free to review about a year ago. Talk about dumb luck! Now I have the older neato in the master bedroom running daily M-F and the d5 does the rest. Two dogs so the d5 fills up every single day.

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Have you had trouble with the Neatos breaking down over time? We've got an unfortunate amount of pet hair the vac picks up every day and twice a Neato has bit the dust after about 14-18 months. We've got a Samsung Powerbot now that we really like, but then again we loved the Neatos while they were relatively new as well.

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My D5 stopped charging after 6 months and they replaced it for free. On the older non connected unit I have replaced the battery after about 2 years but that is it aside from the filters. I usually replace the filter every 2 months it seems to keep them happier.

I didn't buy the warranty offered by Amazon, but would everyone here agree that it's worth it?

MrJonMan said:

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I didn't buy the warranty offered by Amazon, but would everyone here agree that it's worth it?

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I would. Kind of like Keurigs these seem to have durability issues.

Premium said:

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AggieBQ95 said:

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FYI - You can use Bed Bath and Beyond's 20% off coupon on the Roomba. I was able to get my wife the 960 for 519. Still not in your $300 range, but much better than their normal $799. I am sure you can use it on the Neato as well.

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Does the coupon not say Roomba 800 and 900 series are excluded?

ETA: just answered my own question. Bought the 960 at BB&B for $559. It was already discounted to $599 but they took 20% off the original price of $699.

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Sorry just now seeing this today. Glad you were able to get the deal. Yeah I was really surprised that they were doing the 20% off this type of item - usually there is some kind of exclusion when there are big ticket items. I was already looking at getting this for my wife, and then they marked them down to 599, and I was still able to get 20 off of that (another huge shock that they basically allowed you to stack these deals), so that pushed me go get it ASAP. I think the biggest reason you were able to do the 20% even after the price reduction was the price drop was dictated by iRobot - you could see on their website that the price dropped to 599, so this didn't cost BBB anything to drop it on their end and still give you the 20% coupon.

How do you feel about the suction on the 960?

It ran over a bunch of things like small rubberbands for toddler hair and missed several times. Eventually it seemed to get most after several passes.

We had one of the first Neatos and it was very loud and seemed more powerful.

Finally, has anyone experienced the 960 vs 980 in terms of suction power?